Transcriber’s Notes: Text enclosed by underscores is in italics (_italics_), and text enclosed by equal signs is in bold (=bold=). Additional Transcriber’s Notes are at the end. * * * * * [Illustration: A freight train was almost at the crossing, and, unless Motor Matt could check the runabout in its wild flight, it would surely be demolished by the onrushing locomotive.] * * * * * BRAVE AND BOLD WEEKLY _Issued Weekly. By subscription $2.50 per year. Copyright, 1909, by_ STREET & SMITH, _79-89 Seventh Avenue, New York, N. Y._ =No. 363.= NEW YORK, December 4, 1909. =Price Five Cents.= A HOODOO MACHINE; OR, The Motor Boys’ Runabout No. 1313. By STANLEY R. MATTHEWS. CHAPTER I. THE CAR THAT WOULDN’T BEHAVE. “Sufferin’ whirligigs, Pard Matt! Look at that bubble wagon! Is it trying to turn a handspring, or ‘skin the cat,’ or climb that telephone pole? I reckon the longhorn up front don’t know how to run the thing. Either that, or else he’s ‘bug’ with a big ‘B.’” “I should say it’s the car that’s ‘bug,’ Joe. The driver seems to be trying to control the machine in the proper manner, but it won’t be controlled. What’s your notion of it, Billy?” “Hoodoo car, Matt. Look at the number of her--thirteen thirteen. Double hoodoo. You couldn’t expect no chug wagon with such a tag to behave anything else than disgraceful. Lo and behold you, if she don’t turn turtle in the ditch before she goes many more miles then my name’s not Billy Wells. Watch ’er; keep your eye on ’er an’ I’ll bet you see something.” The three boys were driving along the Jericho Pike well toward Krug’s Corner--Matt King, Joe McGlory, and Billy Wells. Billy belonged with a New York garage from which the boys had secured the touring car they were using that morning. He was a living road map, this Billy, and could go anywhere up-state, or over Long Island, or in Jersey on the darkest night that ever fell, and he knew every minute just where he was. Matt was doing the driving, and Billy sat beside him as guide, counselor, and friend. In the back of the machine was McGlory. That was Thursday. Matt and his chum were heeding a summons that carried them toward the Malvern Country Club, near Hempstead. After transacting their business at the Country Club--they did not know what it was, but believed it would not take them long--they were planning to return to Krug’s Corner for their noon meal, and then back to Manhattan by Jackson Avenue and the Williamsburg Bridge. But plans are easily made, sometimes, and not so easily carried out. The day was bright, the roads were good, and the motor boys were enjoying themselves. Well along the Jericho Pike they had come up with a white runabout, two seats in front and a deck behind, and the actions of this car aroused their curiosity to such an extent that Matt slowed down the big machine in order that he and those with him could follow and watch the performance.